AS SIMPLE AS A SIDEWALK-GEOLOGY REVEALED

SIMPLE AS A SIDEWALK



The first two courses of cut stone appear to come from stone quarries near Cold Springs, MN.

The stone matches the grave markers that can be found in cemeteries in Maui. The trade name is Black Diamond Granite.

Sailing ships from New England needed ballast to hold their vessels upright as they tossed about in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Because of this stone, transport to the islands was affordable, considering there was no stone what-so-ever in the Hawaiian Islands.

Stone held some value to another culture that had never seen anything but volcanic.

The stone in Minnesota had been transported over millions of years of continental drift from New England and wound up in Central Minnesota.

As you look your way up the “paver landscape” you will see two or three paver stones that are distinctly pink in color. Those stones are made of Sioux Quartzite or the scientific name Morton Gneiss.

These stone erupted to the surface of the earth in Southern Minnesota. They are approximately 3 billion years old. A century ago Swedish immigrants quarried them and cut them into roadway pavers.

The railways were in their “hayday” and transport of this stone was not a problem, it was shipped far into central South Dakota and even into Chicago. Somewhere along this curious journey it found itself as a paver block in North East Minneapolis.


I am going for a simple walk and can’t avoid seeing this curious geologic anomaly.
The Swedish stonecutter in Luverne Minnesota, where the stone quarries were located toiled away to make a roadway paver block in approximately 1890.

It now resides as a decorative paver stone in a non commercial setting/ a homestead sidewalk paver in the North East regions of Minneapolis.

It’s journey has been long, it once was on the earths equator due to continent drift.

At that time ice had formed on the Equator.

It is a scientific phenom that has yet to be fully explained.

The light pink stone is currently being secured by a private owner that must appreciate its durability. The Stone has had a three Billion year journey to wind up in the city.

He has included it in the sidewalk to his homestead.

What more can we ask of stone?

www.billkeitel.com